McNair was born in
Boston, Lincolnshire, but moved to
Tyneside at an early age. He left school when he was thirteen, working as an errand boy. He joined the
Independent Labour Party (ILP), and was involved in
Victor Grayson's election campaigns in 1910, on one occasion having to fill for an entire evening when Grayson failed to arrive. In 1911, he moved to
Coventry, in an attempt to find regular employment, but his political activity made this difficult, and so, later in the year, he moved to
Paris, where he lived and worked until 1923. He worked as the London Organising Secretary for the ILP during the
1924 general election, but felt that this had harmed his health, and he returned to Paris, where he worked for the next twelve years. In 1936, McNair again returned to the UK, and was appointed as the ILP's national Organising Secretary and international representative. When McGovern returned to Scotland, McNair remained in
Barcelona, running the ILP's political office, and making arrangements for the arrival of British volunteers to fight with the
POUM; these included
George Orwell, whom McNair met on Orwell's arrival. Following the suppression of the POUM during the
Barcelona May Days, he fled Spain with Orwell and two others. McNair was elected as General Secretary of the ILP in 1939, in which capacity he evacuated the party offices to
Glasgow. While holding the post, he stood in the
1943 Bristol Central by-election, taking 7.3% of the vote, and wrote an official biography of
James Maxton, entitled
The Beloved Rebel. In 1955, McNair retired from the General Secretaryship, and returned to Tyneside, when he completed a degree at the
University of Durham ==References==